She sighs, looking over the vastness. The light domed about 20 meters, beyond that was the darkness. She narrowed her eyes, said, "Can't you get brighter?"
"You said I shouldn't strain myself too much."
"No, I didn't." She said, "I would bathe in this if not…"
"You could."
She turned sharply, disgust on her face. "What is even an ashman? A bunch of filthy things…"
"I would say you people are too clean," Merrin said, half-duplicitous. Ashmen bathed often. The new ash was to be worn on new skin, not stained flesh. But she did not have to know that. There was no need for it.
He heard a sound: a gasp.
"sunBringer." A voice calls in the distance.
Merrin halts the radiance, darkness swallowing the world. A moment, he grabbed Catelyn, rolled behind a boulder, and watched. She nearly screamed at that, but likely, repeated startlement had provided some immunity.
Far, a spindly man, moved frantically. "sunBringer. sunBringer. sunBringer!" he screamed, reached the water, eye searching. "I know I saw it. The sunBringer has come to save us." He shouts at the boundary of the river.
Does he not see it? At least, he should hear it.
A corner, stone-walled, red light flickers. Figures casting long shadows walked out, slow-moving. The one standing in the center had a familiar air to him. Merrin observed. Instantly understood the reason.
That was the leader…still nameless. He was owner to the servility ring. Merrin rubbed his finger, covered Catelyn's lips, and whispered in her ear. "Be quiet. Someone is here. It's one of the leaders."
She perked up, murmured. "Then I can use him."
"Not this one." Merrin took the tone of finality. "We observe for now."
She clicks her tongue, but makes no other motions.
He watched the new ones.
The man screamed more. A hand slaps his head. The leader. Merrin heightened the ashman senses, leaned forward over the boulder. Concealed. From this distance, even with the torch lamps, they wouldn't see him. Three among the five carried the torches. There was another, shadowed by the flickering yellow-red lights.
Yellow servs floated about them. Yellow and blue.
Servs! Merrin feared. What if one revealed their location?
He prayed against it.
The leader rasped, "Why are you shouting?" He drilled a punch into the man. His head slams back.
He covers his cheek. "I saw him!" He said, "I saw the sunBringer!"
"This lot." The leader kicks him down. "You people have gone mad. Simply mad." There is rage in his eyes. "First, Yeimen and those escapees, now even my own people are becoming mad."
The one below curls, repeating. "The sunBringer is among his people. The sunBringer is among his devout." When done, he starts again. This enrages the leader. Over and over, he kicked and punched, but the man resisted.
Finally. "I'm done with this." He said, "Bring my giant."
Merrin frowns.
The group parted, their torches moving to the side. This screened a red hue over the giant of a man. Black haired, beard a blend of white and black strands. Shirtless, his froststone somehow fitted into his trousers. Scared on the body and face. Eyes swollen, Ron staggered in motions. The ones beside him reach his arms, none above it.
He stands before the leader, back slouched. Deliberate to reach the leader's length. He said, "Kill him with a cup slap."
Merrin imagined a man, head gone, blood spilling between clasped hands. Ron observed the spindly witness, and this was true. Hesitation danced around his eyes. "Ma'rim, please, this…no."
The leader produces a whip from his side. Where did he get it? "Are you sure?" He asked, rubbing his fingers over the barred rope.
Catelyn whispers. "He is the one who gave me the peak."
So he has connections?
He raised his hand, the whip dripping. "Are you sure?"
Ron stepped back, almost like instinct. What have they done to him? What have they done to that gentle man?
Rage burns within him.
The leader smirks. "Hold him!"
One of the four moved, slow, and irresolute. Merrin noticed a brownness in his hand. No, the wholeness was of the mashed colors of brown and red. Stone. Him? The delay ended when the leader swung the whip at him.
"Move Davos, or you're next!"
Davos heeded now, glanced at the giant Ron, clenched the stone hand, and punched. Sounds like stone crashing. The giant buckles, kneeling, coughing. Another knock on his face, and he met the floor. The leader raised a hand, smiled broadly, and said.
"When you want it to stop, do as I say. "
Ron gritted.
The whip raised, lashing through the air onto the flesh. He screamed. Merrin clenched. It came again, the whip. Repeatedly. Blood streaked from injuries, red scars. Ron writhed like an animal, wailing.
Memory fitted in: Ron, first of his kind in the mines. Even with the horror of the place, he smiled. Not now. That smile must be protected. He was the one who reached out to him. No. That love must be nurtured.
The leader laughed, lashing widely. "Will you do it? Will you do it now?"
Ron wore silence. He will never do it. Not him. Merrin was unsure about himself, but not Ron. Such purity.
That must be rewarded.
He channeled force.
And the light burned violently through the vastness. An instant flash of blinding light. Then it was gone. The leader staggered. "What was that?"
His crew looks among themselves.
The witness laughs. "The sunBringer is here! I told you he stands with his people."
"What mistsense—"
"You should believe him." Merrin stands before him, sudden. All except the two reels. Wide-eyed, the leader mouths unintelligible words.
Merrin offers him no chance. A moment, he moves, kicking him off balance. He falls, head slapping into stone. A scream. The other four, outside Davos, dash. Stone smashes into one, knocking him off. The remaining two look around, stunned by the silent attacker.
A mistake. Merrin rushes, dances through them, landing hard hits to the neck and head. They pass out instantly, their torches rolling over the floor. Dangerous. He quickly picked them up, panting. All dispatched in celerity.
The leader still screamed, cursing. "What mistsense is happening?"
Merrin moves to him, but first helps Ron up. The giant of a man was still stunned, confused. Likely unaware of his savior. I must tell him. "Ma'rim."
He smiles. "Ma'rim, time long one."
"Yes."
"sunBringer." The witness staggered forward. "I believed," he said, "I am new, but I believed."
Merrin offered a smile. "Today, you know me. But I have known you forever." The witness bows immediately. He would think the pain known was worth this moment. This sinks Merrin's heart. Then he looks to the wailing leader. Blood leaked from his head, steaming off the ground. "Where are my people?"
"Son of a sow!" He said, trying a grin. The pain refused it. "Ahhh."
A soft voice sounded. "What about me?"
Merrin turned to the flip side of the river—there, Catelyn stood, stone in hand. She couldn't jump across. He had. That was the tactic. A flash of immense light, disoriente, then combat. She offered help with the stones. Good aim.
Of course, it could all be chance.
He smiles and nods to Ron. The giant of a man glanced at Davos; he had become impish, scared. One had to be. The attacked now had the strength to render harm. Merrin moved to the edge, jumped over the water, cradled Catelyn, and leaped back. All in four seconds.
She dusts her clothes. Because of the water, he imagined.
Merrin stared at Davos. The man shivered. "Bring them all. We need to find a safe place."
"Still some there," Ron said.
"I know." Merrin said, "But first…Answers."
The leader scowled.
He is the morningstar in the depths of the darkness—beliefs of preservation.
Merrin sat on a high stone, higher than the rest. Deliberate. The witness had combed hard for it. What a smile on his face when he found it…It made him chuckle. He looked like a child.
Perhaps that was what all the witnesses were in the end…His children and people.
The leader was centered, bound back by his whip, blood dried against his skin and neck, trailing down in a slittering pattern. Like an old scar. They existed now in a small cave, torches fitted into stone, flicking and casting shadows across the walls. In silence, they watched. Davos was offered no stone. On the ground. He seemed much like the interrogated as the leader. The other two were asleep, and the witness watched from the side.
Here now were Catelyn, Ron, and he—all observing the once mighty leader. Nothing now. His life in their hands. Merrin asked again. "Where are my people?"
He does not answer, and Catelyn hurls stone at his head. She is happy to do it. Red spurts from the wound, and murder burned in his eyes. He would kill them if given the chance. Maybe that was what he wanted. The chance. A chance to turn the tables. How?
A bargain for my people? Merrin resisted rubbing his temples. The shaman once said it was a sign of weakness. Ron said, "I know something."
Merrin regarded him—he was to the right. "What?"
"Slave, Yeimen, take many witnesses."
Merrin understands. The leader had said something similar. "Where did he take them?" He asks. The leader refuses to answer.
Catelyn interjects. "Let's torture him."
Merrin stares at her—to his left. "What?"